pharmaceuticals Editorial Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglycans Vitor H. Pomin 1 and Barbara Mulloy 2,* 1 Program of Glycobiology, Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis and University Hospital Clementino Fraga Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-913, Brazil;
[email protected] 2 Glycosciences Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Burlington Danes Building, Du Cane Road, London W12 0NN, UK * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 19 February 2018; Accepted: 26 February 2018; Published: 27 February 2018 Abstract: In this editorial to MDPI Pharmaceuticals special issue “Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglycans” we describe in outline the common structural features of glycosaminoglycans and the characteristics of proteoglycans, including the intracellular proteoglycan, serglycin, cell-surface proteoglycans, like syndecans and glypicans, and the extracellular matrix proteoglycans, like aggrecan, perlecan, and small leucine-rich proteoglycans. The context in which the pharmaceutical uses of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans are presented in this special issue is given at the very end. Keywords: chondroitin sulfate; decorin; dermatan sulfate; glycosaminoglycans; glypican; heparan sulfate; heparin; hyaluronan; keratan sulfate; perlecan; proteoglycans; serglycin; syndecan 1. Introduction This short article is intended to provide a brief introduction to the structures of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and proteoglycans (PGs) to set the articles in this special issue of Pharmaceuticals on “Proteoglycans and Glycosaminoglycans” into context. The class of glycosylated proteins known as PGs is represented in the pharmaceutical world chiefly by its carbohydrate constituents. These are polysaccharides known as GAGs, such as heparin (Hp) [1] and chondroitin sulfate (CS) [2]. When attached to their native protein cores these polysaccharides form the glycoconjugates known as PGs.